Quick wins for more energy efficiency

More visibility, more energy efficiency: How modern soft starters and frequency converters can exploit major savings potential.

In industry, measures for greater energy efficiency have become a necessity. Anyone who fails to rapidly reduce energy consumption now while maintaining product quality and high output volumes will no longer be competitive in the medium term. And this applies to almost all industries. That's why it's worth taking a look at technology solutions that enable major efficiency gains in industrial environments and commercial buildings, even with simple means. This involves making otherwise invisible processes visible, but also using electric motors as needed.

Upswing for energy efficiency

The current energy crisis has given the topic of energy efficiency a new boost. For a long time, solutions for increasing efficiency did not seem particularly attractive in view of low energy prices. When it came to reducing CO₂ emissions, people tended to rely on the use of renewable energy sources or partial electrification. The reason: The positive consequences of efficiency measures are often not as obviously recognizable as is the case, for example, with the electrification of cars or heating systems. In most cases, it is a matter of activating many small adjusting screws that only demonstrate their full value when added together. In addition to optimized thermal insulation technologies, remarkable efficiency gains can be achieved above all with demand-oriented motor control.

Efficient engine control and visualization of consumption

A central starting point for increasing energy efficiency in industry and commerce are the many electric drives. According to the Federal Environment Agency, about two-fifths of Germany's total electricity consumption is accounted for by electric drives and the units they power. Since pumps and fan applications in particular usually run in the partial-load range, but classically have a non-linear characteristic curve, enormous energy-saving potential can be exploited here with the help of soft starters or frequency converters. Unlike direct starters, soft starters in particular are so energy-efficient because they do not generate a high current pulse. The starting current required to start a motor is significantly reduced due to the gradual increase in voltage. This keeps the power grid protected from voltage dips and users benefit from greater energy efficiency.

And there's more: modern soft starters - such as the new Altivar ATS 480 from Tech Group Schneider Electric - are also capable of collecting energy data and communicating it to higher-level control or software layers via fieldbus protocol. With this level of connectivity, such devices are an important element in increasing the visibility of energy consumption in a digitally networked automation architecture. And that is a very important aspect. Because inefficiencies or risks to power quality can only be remedied if they can be detected or localized in the first place, i.e. no longer remain invisible.

How effective is a frequency converter?

In addition to soft starters, frequency converters can also be used to achieve particularly energy-efficient operation of electric motors. Schneider Electric has developed the online tool Motor Management Design to show operators of commercial properties or industrial plants the ecological and economic effects of retrofitting with a frequency inverter. The program, which can be used free of charge, calculates on the basis of the user's initial conditions - e.g. motor data and electricity price - what influence the use of a frequency converter has on categories such as energy consumption, return on investment or CO₂ emissions. For example, it can be transparently shown that when a frequency converter is retrofitted, the payback period in typical applications is usually less than one year.

Tools such as Motor Management Design thus play an important role in the implementation of energy efficiency measures. By making the economic and ecological potential of individual technical solutions visible and understandable, they convincingly demonstrate the benefits of investing in appropriate technologies. It then often becomes clear that enormous efficiency gains can be skimmed off here even with simple means.